Jerry Cooper, who fought for White House Boys abused at Dozier school, dies at 76
The leader of the White House Boys has died.
Jerry Cooper was among a group of retired men who forced a formal apology from the Florida Legislature for the abuse they suffered as children at the Arthur Dozier School for Boys, a state run reform school for so-called delinquent children, 60 miles west of Tallahassee.
Cooper succumbed to cancer this past weekend at his home in Cape Coral, his wife, Babbs, told Tampa Bay Axios.
He was 76.
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After a career as a U.S. Army sergeant and businessman, Cooper emerged as a spokesman for a group of men who sought acknowledgement that the Dozier school was staffed by sadists who whipped and tortured children, in some cases, to death.
Cooper, at 16, was the star quarterback of the Dozier’s 1961 football team. He said he endured 135 lashings with a leather belt – wrapping himself with two towels to stop the bleeding – and threatened with five years in prison if he didn’t play football.
Sheriff deputies had picked up Cooper as a passenger in a stolen car. He was determined to be "delinquent," and sent to Dozier.
About two decades ago, Cooper and others formed a group called the White House Boys Association, named after the building on campus where the beatings took place.
Cooper was elected the association’s president.
In 2009, the Boys convinced then-Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum to look into their allegations. An FDLE investigation found two dozen unmarked graves but no evidence to substantiate their account.
The vagueness of the FDLE findings did not deter the White House Boys. They continued to tell their stories to newspaper and television reporters, and lawmakers. The state closed Dozier in 2011.
The next year University of South Florida archaeologists using ground penetrating radar found 55 unmarked graves on the campus, 29 more than FDLE did.
The randomness of the burials, remains at different depths and angles, was taken as confirmation of the White House Boys’ story about abuse at the hands of staff.
In 2017, the Florida Legislature issued a formal apology to Dozier’s survivors.
At a news conference held in the Capitol Rotunda attended by leaders of the House and Senate, and then-Gov. Rick Scott, Cooper accepted the apology on behalf of the White House Boys.
“The people of Jackson County, this is not on you. Politicians of today, this was not your fault. Those people all died,” said Cooper. “I only ask this, please don’t ever let anything like this happen again.”
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee
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